Energy Sublevels

  • Single lines were made up of many lines close together

  • Multiple lines close together could not have resulted from electrons dropping to two different energy levels → lines were too close together

  • It was proposed that each main energy level (except the first) were made out of a number of sublevels that were close in energy

  • Number of sublevels was equal to the value of n

    • Example:

      • n=2 → 2 sublevels

      • n=3 → 3 sublevels